9 short stories that will make you wonder why you haven't been reading short stories all this long

The author is not what you would call a bookworm. However, he grew tired of reading the 10 reasons why this and 10 reasons why that things that he sometimes writes himself. The author then took to wondering what people read before these top 10 lists took over the internet and the internet took over the world. He decided to ask the internet and the internet pointed him to some good old short stories. The author decided  to point you, dear readers to the 9 short stories that he found to be most entertaining.

1. The Ransom Of Red Chief by O.Henry

William Sydney Porter, known better by his pen name O.Henry is a true master of storytelling. His stories are light hearted funny ones and are known to have a "sting in the tail". The one being discussed here involves a kidnapping and it is not the kidnapped person who suffers! Funny things keep happening throughout the story you'll have a lot of rofl and lol moments. Dunno if O.Henry would appreciate modern society's way of complimenting funny things.

Read it here.

   

2. The Fall Of The House Of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

Don't read this one at night under a torchlight like the author of this blog did. It is established that Edgar Allen Poe suffered from depression and his stories can be described by the word weird. Well, weird but exceptional at the same time. It contains a lot of unconventional themes like incest, reanimation of the dead and likewise. The story ends in a climax and that is one climax to read! It is sure to give you some scares.

Read it here.

3. The Prize Poem by P.G.Wodehouse

The plot of this short story is as simple as three different students copying the same poem to submit for their school's poetry competition which is mandatory for all the students. P.G Wodehouse wittily brings out the lazy and lackluster attitude of students towards something that they are made to do and do not want to do. The principal takes the incident as a challenge to his authority. How the events unfold thereafter makes for an interesting read.

Read it here.

4. The Eyes Have It by Ruskin Bond

This story is written in the form of a first person narrative. For a brief period of time, Mr. Bond suffered from blindness. As he travels alone by train, a girl whom he senses to be beautiful comes to sit across him. He doesn't want the girl to know that he is blind and starts a conversation. This conversation and the revelation that follows makes this story an awesome read.

Read it here.

5. Dusk by H.H.Munro

Norman Gortsby is sitting on  a park bench. The other end of the bench is occupied by an old man who is wearing a carnation. Norman Gortsby begins to contemplate about the time of the day i.e. Dusk. He considers it to be the time of those who have been defeated by life and he considers the old man to be one of them. Soon, the old man goes away and his place is taken by another person who says that he is new to the city and has lost his way as he came out of his hotel  to buy a cake of soap. He asks Gortsby for help and what follows after is an awesome second part of the story.

Read it here.

6. The Cop And The Anthem by O.Henry

Its O.Henry again! No I am not biased, he is actually that good. This story is about a homeless man in New York named Soapy. It is the winter season and terribly cold for a homeless person to survive. So much so that Soapy decides to spend his winter in a prison. The prison, with its warm blankets and guaranteed meals is definitely more hospitable for a homeless guy than the cold streets of New York. Soapy tries to get himself arrested and fails ludicrously many times.  He then comes to the street where he lived as a child. Those memories fill him with inspiration and he decides to turn his life around. What follows after this, no one can expect!

Read it here.

7. At Home by Anton Chekhov

A treat from Russia, this one is about a father trying to convince his infant son not to smoke!  Eugene Bikovsy is a lawyer whose 7 year old son Seriozha is placed under the care of a governess as Eugene's wife is no more. The conversation between the father and the son makes for an awesome read.

Read it here.

8. The Cabuliwallah by Rabindranath Tagore

Asia's first Nobel winner writes about his five year old daughter, Mini's  friendship with a dry fruits peddler. The friendship ends abruptly after the Kabuliwala is convicted of a crime and sent to prison. He is released years after and comes to meet Mini on the day of her wedding. A good read, this one.

Read it here.

9. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

Mathilde is born relatively poor, but dreams of an aristocratic life. She eventually marries a low paid clerk who tries his best to keep her happy. After a lot of begging, he somehow manages to get two tickets to a ministry of education party. Mathilde loses something that she has borrowed for the party. She tries to compensate and the story takes a different course.

Read it here.

8 reasons why working from home is awesome.

According to a survey by Weigo (weigo, 2013), home-based workers accounted for 15.2 percent of the non-agricultural workforce of our country. In the urban landscape, working from home has started losing the reputation of being an entitlement of only the sick and of pregnant women. A lot of people like to take a day off from the office and complete their work from home if the nature of their work permits them to do so. Crapanalytics has come up with a list of reasons of why working from home is more awesome than you think.

1.     You get to spend more time with your pet.

Dog owners would better understand the importance of this point. Doesn’t your heart break when you have to lock up your puppy in your flat/home and then leave it that way for the entirity of the day? Your only moment of redemption is when you come back home and deliver your pup from its loneliness. Moreover, you realise that loneliness makes the pet do unimaginable things like pooping on your bed or eating up your documents. Having a pet is nice because it is your best opportunity of non-human interactions. Why not work from home for a day and keep patting and caressing your pet while you work?  Who knows, one day your pet might learn what you do at work. In that case, you can ask your dog to your job for you sometimes.

2.     You can play loud music.

Music lovers(like the author) would understand how musiyc can pump up your productivity. Now, you can’t take your music system to office with you and most bosses take exception to their employees plugging in earphones at work. Your best chance at mixing music with work is working from home. You can start with playing soft beats at the beginning and then switch to heavy beats once you enter your zone. You would then finish up your work and then realise that your job isn’t that boring afterall.

3.     You can wear pyjamas.

No piece of clothing is as comfortable as your pyjamas. The author knows the ridicule one faces while wearing pyjamas to one’s office. You  can always take a moment to admire the beauty of your pyjama and then return back to work. Many people find informal clothes to be more comfortable than formal clothes that the rules of their office require them to wear. Working from home gives you the freedom to wear what you are comfortable with and in many cases this increases your productivity. Just be sure to put on something decent everytime you have to answer the doorbell to be prepared just I case your boss decides to give you a visit.

4.     No fear of your boss looking over your shoulder.

We have all faced that awkward moment while plaing farmville at work when we hear,”What are you doing?”Looking back, one finds the Mr.nogamesallowedatworkinthisoffice i.e. your boss and then you have to give lengthy explanations like, “I was just taking a break”. Many people(like the author) are more productive when they are their own boss i.e. they are working in an unsupervised environment. Being your own boss is one of the many freedoms that working from home offers you. You can make a timetable according to your likes. You  can take an early luch or you can take a late lunch.

5.     Save travel time.

Commuting to work is a headache in most big cities of India. In cities like Mumbai, it often takes upto 2 hours just to reach your office changing trains and then walking to stations. You can put this time to some productive use while you work from home. You will  also be spared the sound of honking horns and the feel of crowded public transport. You’ll end your day with more energy and less frustration. It would be like taking a day off and still completing  your work.

6.     Spend more time with your family.

A lot of working parents in metros have to leave their children at a day care centre while going to work. The children, as a result start having a distance from their parents. “Sunday wala uncle” is a term coined for fathers who are at work for the entirity of the week. As a result, the child gets to see his father only on Sundays. To save yourself from such reputation, it is mandatory that you take atleast a day off to work from home in a week and spend some quality time with your child and then maybe go to a nearby park in the evening. Working from home is also a wonderful opportunity for single mothers who can work and look after their children at the same time. Spending some time at home with your spouse is beneficial for your relationships too.

7.     Know your neighbourhood.

Facebook and Whatsapp connect us with friends and realtives in far off places. But what about those people who live next door? It is important to have greater interactions with your neighbours than the occassional hi when you catch him entering his front door the same time you are entering yours. During lunch, you can invite your neighbour over or maybe pay him a visit. Having a good aquaintance with your neighbour  is important as he is going to be the immediate point of contact during an emergency.

8.     An opportunity to keep your house clean.

You can utilise the breaks during work at office that you spend beside the water-cooler  gossiping with your colleague about the new girl in office. You can wipe your dining table at this time or maybe use a vacuum cleaner to tidy the floor if you are working from home. You can save yourself from the mess your house/flat becomes during the week due to busy work schedules and then you have to spend your Sunday cleaning the house.  You will be surprised to know how clean and organised your house/flat can look once you give in a little effort and time.

10 remarkable things about Udghosh 2015

We toiled. We spammed. We succeeded! If the author was a poet, he would have put it this way - so many people worked so hard to make Udghosh a success that the entire universe conspired to make sure that it was one. The author is no bard and a bit bald and all he can say that it was helluva event!
Qutopia's annual flagship event, Udghosh concluded successfully on Sunday, 13th December this month. After the grand success of Udghosh 2014, there were a lot of expectations from the event this year. There is no denying the fact that all those expectations have been fulfilled.

The participants started making a beeline to the auditorium as early as 8.30 AM but our volunteers were present there even before (some of whom spent the night at the KSAC). After all the participants had done registering themselves, the show was handed over to Mr. Vikram Joshi. 

Crapanalytics has come up with a list of ten remarkable things that characterized Udghosh 2015. 

1. It was huge

This is not a movie screening. These are participants at Udghosh!

Yeah, like literally huge with 457 teams participating. The king size Campus-6 Auditorium was filled to capacity. This year’s Udghosh beat its predecessor in terms of number of people participating. This makes Udghosh 2015 the largest open quiz in Eastern India. The participants varied from school students to academics and corporates. For some, it was an event much awaited while for the others, it was a Sunday well spent. For the organizers, it was like watching their baby come to life.

2. The QM rocked

The QM who rocked : Mr. Vikram Joshi

Vikram Joshi, upon whom a lot of hopes rested, did an excellent job. The QM rocked the stage not with a guitar but with mind blowing quiz questions. The QM was an epitome of patience, taking his time to explain the questions to the participants in the prelims and giving them ample time think. In the finals, the QM listened carefully to all the answers the finalists gave. The right ones received points while the wrong ones fetched a polite no from the QM.

3. It was a fabulous set of questions

Like this funda? There is a lot more where that came from

A QM can perform well only when he is backed by a good set of questions. Our QM was backed by a fabulous set that he brought along with vada pavs. The prelims were a bit difficult. Although, Jyoti Prakash Panda and Saransh Mohapatra were able to score 22 out of 30, thereby emerging as the highest scorers in the prelims. The prelims contained questions based on audio visuals along with others. The finals were as good as the prelims and had the finalists scratching their heads on some.

 4. The winners were awesome

Aryapriya Ganguly and Avinash Mudaliar, the winners

Dalma kuch kala hona ho, protein zaroor hai.
Team Aadvarks a.k.a. Dalma Kuch Kala Hai consisting of Aryapriya Ganguly and Avinash Mudaliar were the winners. Their win can be attributed to protein rich diet consisting mainly of dal which is reflected in long facial hair of Avinash.
The Doctor and his patient-in 3D i.e. Dr. Suby Bhattacharya and Kunal Malhotra were the Runners-Up while Somnath Chanda and Soubhadra Chakraborty who had named their team "The Intolerables" were the Second Runners-Up.

The other finalists were:
Slim and Shady (Saransh Mohapatra and Jyoti Parakash Panda)
Excelsior (Gaurav Jena and Debjit Tripathy)
Naam Mein Kya Rakha Hai? (Mukti Swarup Pradhan and Baibaswata Jena)
Cow Tse Tung (Nishant Nihar and Priyambad Pattanayak)
Tom's Dick Harry a.k.a Binary (Abhinav Dhar and Siddharth Mishra)

Dr. Suby Bhattacharya and Kunal Malhotra

Somnath Chanda and Soubhadra Chakrabarty

5. The prizes were awesome too

As promised, the winners walked away with their giant cheques of Rs. 75000 

(like literally giant)

The runners up with Rs. 50000 and the second runners up with Rs. 25000.
Madhurima Dutta and Sreeja Shambhavi, who were the highest scoring Girls' Team got special prizes from B21 and Jovees.
All the other finalists got gifts too. Owing to a separate competition for the best team name, we saw the teams coming up with innovative team names. One of the teams came up with the name "I quizzed a girl and I liked it". It was eventually chosen as the best team name and the team got a special prize. A special prize was given to the highest scoring school team too.
Off-stage, people were showered with audience prizes and those who registered early, got early bird gifts. The organizers are confident that some of those who came to Udghosh will be able to give Santa a pass this year.

De ja vu? They won it last year and they won it this year too!

 6. We had some distinguished guests and visitors

Mr. Anil Vajpayee along with his team mate for the quiz

Mr. Anil Vajpayee who is the honorable Director of KSOM, was there throughout the event.
Omkar Amrutanshu, our alumni and a legendary senior was also there throughout the event. His towering figure (at above 6.5 feet) will always be a source of inspiration. Mohit Dayal and Santosh Bhaiya were also there.
Dr. Sucheta Priyabadini and Prof. P.P. Mathur, our honorable Vice-Chancellor handed over the prizes to the winners.

Thats not a skyscraper. That is Omkar Amrutanshu!

Mohit and Sachin Bhaiyas

7. We had our heroes

To get the event running on stage, a lot of people worked behind the scenes too. One blog post can't mention everybody, but there are some people who led from the front and saw the event to its conclusion. Aman Sinha, Abhinav Dhar, Shovna Mohapatra and Arko Biswas lead the charge and coordinated the organisation of the event.

Aman Sinha had pledged not to take a bath till the event gets over

                             (He has still not taken a bath)

  With a great deal of effort, the author was able to 

find this photo where Miss. Mohapatra failed to pose

Mr. Dhar flaunting his crop of the No Shave November, well into December

Mr. Arko Biswas : He is a real page turner

Siddharth Mishra, Lalit Mundhra, Souradeep Dey, Souradip Chatterjee, Raunak Ghosh and Abinash Sahu persistently raided prospective sponsors at their homes and offices and arranged those amazing coupons and gifts.

Coca Cola is the secret of his energy

Mr. Mundhra : He has got the moves like Jagger

Post Udghosh, Mr. Souradeep Dey has flown to the north pole
 to assume his responsibilities as Santa Claus

Clockwise from top: Souradip, Raunak, Sachin and Abinash

Nihal Nayak, Rohan Rakesh, Asif Ghazi, Akanksha Priya, Gourav Jeet Nair, Rahil Sur and Shalini Rai took up the task of publicity and made sure everyone knew about the event.

The Dark Knight (Nihal), with his sidekicks: Gaurav and Avinash

Asif  welcoming participants with his beautiful smile

Akansha taking in the necessary calories before the event

Rahil : This pic was so heavy, it took forever to put it up

Rohan Rakesh and Shalini Rai

Abhishek Sengupta, Sreeja Shambhavi and Ankita Das came up with those amazing posters which we proudly spammed you with.

Sreeja : We've got a bad ass over here 

Abhishek Sengupta and Ankita Das

8. It was truly an open quiz

The quiz saw participation from school kids and also from their parents who came to drop them off and later decided to participate. Udghosh was for everyone and those who participated ranged from being corporates to professors.

9. We had people talking about Udghosh

Udghosh became a buzz word no only in KIIT, but also in quizzing community elsewhere. Udghosh became a topic of discussion in quizzing circles from Delhi to Mumbai to Hyderabad and participants came from far flung places just to participate in the event. 

10. At the end of the day, everyone left with a smile

Everyone who participated got a participation certificate and a gift.
Watching VJ take a quiz thereafter was a treat and a lot of people stayed till the end. VJ was thrilled with the enthusiasm of the participants and the welcome he received. He has promised to come back next year too and make it a hat-trick. For the organizing team, satisfaction of a job well done was the ultimate reward which they topped up with large quantities of Coca-Cola.

The OC, the alumni, the QM

  These amazing pictures have been taken by Debjeet Sarkar and Prateek Das.

10 Reasons Why You Are Going To Be At Udghosh 2015

For those who have missed the buzz on fb, Qutopia is back with the brand new version of its 11-year old annual quiz, Udghosh. It is scheduled on Sunday, 13th December at 9:00 a.m., at the Campus-6 Auditorium, KIIT University.
Anyone who has been to Udghosh before, will tell you that it is not just another quiz. Udghosh is to quizzers what Durga Puja is to Bengalis and Ganesh Chaurthi is to Marathis. Believe me, I haven't even started to brag.
Crapanalytics has come up with a list of reasons why you are going to be at Udghosh just in case you haven't been convinced by those super awesome posters that we have been flooding your newsfeed with.

1. Guess who our QM is. It's VJ!

This is Mr.Vikram Joshi, a World Quizzing Champion, one of the Kaun Banega Crorepati Triguni Panelist and the Quizmaster of Udghosh. Isn't he cute? He is flying all the way from Mumbai with his super amazing set of questions and Vada Pavs. VJ was here last year too and we have been waiting for him ever since. He regularly conducts quizzes in Mumbai and nearby but he loves the audience back here and we love him too. It is this mutual affection that has brought him back and it will be quiet an experience attending a quiz taken by a pro like VJ.

2. We've got such prizes, you won't need to ask Santa for anything.

It's December and you've ambitiously started to finish the good deeds of an entire year before 25th just to look like a good kid to Santa. You can do better than being a good kid, come to Udghosh. A giant amount of 75k has been fixed for the Winner for this year's version of Udghosh. First Runner-Up gets 50k and the Second Runner-Up 25k. Special prizes await if you are one of the eight stage finalists or even when you get smart and lucky in the audience. Two of the stage positions have been fixed for all college/school teams.

3. Girl power. Again!

Like the Launchpad 2k15, the Best All-Girl Team is going to get a special prize and it is going to be pink! You can bring your bff as your team mate.

4. It's free! It's open! It's fun!

It is the middle of the month and you've probably exhausted all your pocket money on fast food and other bad habits. Don't worry, we understand your situation. Like all the preceding versions, Udghosh 2015 is free too! It means that you have nothing to lose and a lot to win. Also, you can team up with anyone you want to. You are free to come with your roommate and you are free to come with your grandpa. Needless to say, it is going to be hell lot of fun.

5. It is easier than you think.

You don't have to be an Encyclopedia to answer the questions, you just have to pay attention. The questions are going to be from what you see and hear around yourself everyday (popular media and stuff). You'll be surprised with what you know (the author was surprised with himself too).

6. Experience the Qutopia hospitality.

If you are at Udghosh, then you are our guests. We have an army of volunteers who will be there to guide and help you at every step so that all that you have to do is to sit back and enjoy on those reclining chairs of the Campus 6 Auditorium. If you are an outstation participant, then you'll be taken care of well by our volunteers.

7. Have your own Eureka and Bazinga moments.

It's a General quiz and you are sure to hit your mind's light bulb on a number of questions. Those are the moments you can proudly shout 'Bazinga!' (if you are a Sheldon Cooper fan) or 'Eureka!' (if you are an Archimedes fan). Be sure not to disturb others though. Even if you're not a stage finalist, don't worry, there'll be a lot of questions passed on from the stage to the audience, and some audience questions too. Just go 'Bazinga!' or 'Eureka!' on them and you might win the awesome audience prizes.

8. Meet new people.

There are going to be people from different colleges, different schools and different cities! It's going to be a cosmopolitan environment altogether. You can spend your Sunday making new friends, having a chit-chat and taking selfies.

9. You'll have food for thought as well as your tummy.

VJ has prepared so many questions on so many interesting topics which will have you intrigued and thinking. While you're busy feeding your thoughts, you might go empty on your tummy. Don't worry, Campus-6 Audi has a lot of food courts around and we have arranged food stalls from popular brands. We are going to distribute coupons for the same as prizes so that you can enjoy your meals at discounted prices.

10. You'll leave only to come back again.

After the show is over, you'll be provided with participation certificates. It will be hard to say goodbye, but we are sure we'll meet you again in the future Qutopia events that are going to be ever awesome. Moreover, you can always catch us at sessions on Saturdays. We love quizzing and group hugs.

Fb event id: https://www.facebook.com/events/972603779463019/